This lesson and the next one answer perhaps the most often
asked
questions regarding the prophecies of the book of
Revelation. Namely, who is the beast of
Revelation 13, and what is his mark? We will let the sure
Word of God lead us to the answers!

Answer: The beast had heads and ten
. Each of the
horns had a
upon it. It also had the name of
written upon his
.

We have already learned from Revelation 17:15 that in prophecy the sea
represents "peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues." This beast John saw,
like other beasts in Bible prophecy
represents a kingdom. See
Daniel 7:17.
It would also be a kingdom that arises in a very populated part of the
earth!
When we see the word blasphemy, we know that this power must be in some way
religious.
Blasphemy is a religious term. This power would speak blasphemies against
the God of heaven!

When Jesus forgave sins, He was called a "blasphemer" because the people said,
"Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
See
Mark 2:7.
They also accused Jesus of blasphemy when He called Himself the Son of
God.
See
Matthew 26:64-65.
In Jesus’ case, these words were not blasphemy
because He is God the Son, the second Person of the One Godhead! But for
any other person to claim such power would indeed be blasphemy.
The beast of Revelation 13 has blasphemy written all over it!

3. Parts of what three other animals did this beast have? See
verse 2.

Answer: A , a
, and a
.

The fact that this beast has parts of different beasts represents the fact that
it has taken parts from certain other kingdoms through the centuries.

4. Who gave this beast "his power, his seat, and great authority?" See
verse 2 again.

Answer: The .

Revelation 13:2 tells us that the dragon (which primarily represents Satan, and
which secondarily represents pagan Rome as we learned in session 12) ‘gave’ the
beast his "power and his seat, and
great authority." To find out who the ‘beast’ represents, we need to know
who received ‘power,’ ‘authority,’ and the ‘seat’ from pagan Rome!

When pagan Rome fell from power, papal Rome took its place! The Roman church
received from pagan Rome its seat, power and great authority!
A.C. Flick, the historian, in his book, The Rise of the Medieval
Church, writes this:

“it is an undisputed fact of history that under the latter Roman
emperors, after Constantine, the religion of the Roman government was changed from
pagan to papal ... that after A.D. 476, the bishop of Rome (the pope) became the
most influential power in western Rome, and by Justinian, in 533 A.D. was declared
the ‘head of all the holy churches,’ and the ‘corrector of heretics.’
The removal of the capital from Rome to Constantinople in 330 A.D. left the western
church, practically free from imperial power, to develop its own form of
organization.
The bishop of Rome, in the SEAT of the Caesars, was now the greatest man in the
West, and was soon (when the Barbarians overran
the empire) forced to become the political as well as the spiritual head.”

Although the falling away from truth began even in Paul’s day, the Papal Church’s
political power did not begin until 538 A.D. when Justinian’s decree made in 533
was able to be carried out. The beast of
Revelation 13 refers to the political religio kingdom of the Papacy.

This Roman papal religlo-political beast would suffer a deadly head wound after
the period of 42 months according to verse 5 of this chapter.
42 months is 1260 days or years! Since the political part of the papacy came
into being officially in 538 A.D., then 1260 years later would bring us to the
year 1798.
According to the words of the prophecy, at this time the Roman papacy would suffer
a fatal wound, but this deadly wound would be healed to the point that all the
world would “wonder” after the beast!
This is exactly what happened at that time. We find this written in the book
Daniel and the Revelation, by Uriah Smith on page 567.

"This wound fell upon the form of government that existed in the
Roman
Empire after its change from paganism to Christianity. Thus it is evident that it
was the papal head that was wounded to death, and whose deadly wound was
healed.
This wounding is the same as the going into captivity. See verse 10.
It was inflicted when the pope was taken prisoner by Berthier, the French general,
and the papal government was for a time abolished, in 1798.
Stripped of his power, both civil and ecclesiastical, the captive pope, Pius VI,
died in exile at Valence
in France, August 29, 1799. But the deadly wound began to be healed when
the papacy was re-established, though with less of its former power, by the
election of a new pope, March 14, 1800.”

Since 1798 the papacy has increased in power and popularity! In fact, the
current pope, John Paul II is probably the most traveled and most popular pope
there has ever been!
All the world is wondering after him! But this deadly wound will not be
fully healed until the papacy once again rides the nations of the earth as
depicted in Revelation chapter 17.
We will learn more about this in a future lesson.

6. When the people worship this religious beast, who are they really
worshipping?
See
verse 4.

Answer: The .

This is a very serious matter! The devil will take worship any way he
can get it!
If he can deceive the world to honor and worship a false religion that he
originated, he claims this
worship as if done to him! Verse 4 also indicates that this Roman Church
would be great and powerful. ‘Who is able to make war with her?’

7. Besides ruling supreme for 42 months as we discussed already, what did
this beast speak with his mouth?
See
verses 5 and 8.

Answer:
and .

The word of God predicted that this beast would have a mouth speaking great things
and saying blasphemies against the Most High.
This the papacy has done. Canons and Papal ‘bulls’ have proclaimed that the
pope holds the place on earth of God.
He accepts the title of "Holy Father" and allows men to bow down to him. The
Catholic Encyclopedia declares this in its article about the pope:

“The pope is of so great dignity and so exalted that he is not a mere man, but as
it were God, and the vicar of God ... The pope is of such lofty and supreme
dignity that, properly speaking ... he has been placed upon the very summit of
all ranks and dignities ... The pope is called ‘most holy’ because he is rightfully
presumed to be such ... The pope is of such great authority and power that he can
modify, explain, or interpret even divine laws”.
Prompta Bibliotheca Volume 6, pps. 26-29 by Lucius Ferraris.

At the fourth session of the fifth Lateran Council, in an oration to the pope,
Christopher Marcellus exclaimed:

If that is not speaking great words, then I don’t know what is! Notice also that in
verse 6 it says that the beast blasphemes the ‘tabernacle’, and those who
‘dwell in heaven.’
The Roman Church has an
earthly priesthood and ‘sacrifices’ Christ afresh every time they perform the
mass!
The earthly priesthood blasphemes the high priestly ministry of Jesus in the
heavenly sanctuary!
See
Hebrews 8:1-2 and 10:10.

8. What would this beast do to the ‘saints’ (true believers)? See
verse 7.

Answer: He would
against them.

This can only refer to religious persecution which we all know did arise from
Papal Rome.
The Roman Catholic Church did put an estimated 50 million people to death who
refused to bow down to her images or believe her doctrines!
You can go to any Christian bookstore and get a copy of the book Foxes Book
of Martyrs and you can read about this persecution against true
believers!
You have heard about the Inquisition in Spain and other places; this is what God
said would happen, she would "make war with the saints."

9. Will all who dwell on the earth be deceived into worshipping this beastly
form of religion?
Verse 8.

Answer: .

10. Will those who worship this beast have their names written in the Lamb’s
book of life?
Same verse 8.

Answer: !

God takes false worship very seriously, and we ought to also! Notice also that
in His great love, God had planned that in the event of sin, His Son would be
slain.
The decision made between Father and
Son was done before the ‘foundation of the world!’ Praise Yahweh!

Verses 9-10 refer to the captivity the beast would go into at the end of the
1260 years of supremacy we have studied previously. The next part of this
important chapter describes the rise of the second beast and also the ‘mark of the
beast’.
The second beast rises around the same time as the first beast goes into captivity.
See verse 10.
That tells us that this second beast is rising toward the end of the 1700s!

11. From whence does the second beast arise and how is this second beast
described?
See
verse 11.

Answer: It comes up out of the and has
like a , and he
as a .

A lamb like beast with horns? There is no such animal as this in the
Bible lands!
It is very possible that what John saw was the American buffalo which he did not
know how to describe, hence he said it was ‘like a lamb’ with ‘two horns!’

Another important thing to notice about this second beast or power is that it does
not rise up out of the ‘sea’ which would represent a very populated part of the
world.
The second beast rises up out of the earth, or in other words, a sparsely populated
part of the world!
This is where the United States began! This second beast also does not have
any ‘crowns’ on it like the horns the first beast had!
In other words, no king would rule this power! Also, a lamb like beast
symbolizes carefree gentleness and freedom.
This is how this country we live in began! It rose to greatness in the
late 1700s and early 1800s.
It is ruled by the people, and it has no king! But according to the prophecy,
this country will undergo a change and eventually speak as a
dragon!

The ‘dragon’ caused the government of pagan Rome to kill all the babies two years
old and under in an attempt to kill baby Jesus. See
Revelation 12:4
again.
So the dragon used the state to enforce its will. This is the way Rome has
always operated throughout the centuries!
The prophecy says that this country will begin to enforce religious laws through
the use of government laws.
It is through laws that nations without a king ‘speak!’ We are already seeing
powerful religious groups
pushing for legislation to support religious institutions with state funds, and
to promote religious observances in state institutions.

12. What does the second beast cause all the world to do regarding the first
beast?
See
Verse 12.

Answer: He causes the world to the first
beast whose wound was .

In order to ‘cause the world’ to worship the first beast, this power must be a
superpower able to have world wide influence! This is exactly the place the
United States finds itself in today. The United States is the world’s ONLY super
power!
This country will lead the world in worshipping the first beast, the Roman
Papacy!
Somehow we will see a form of Roman Worship enforced throughout the whole
world.
This will involve the mark of the beast we will study about in our next
session.

This could refer to the great technological miracles the United States has
achieved by this time!
The relatively recent development and use of the atomic and hydrogen bombs can
surely literally be called fire coming down from heaven!
It also could refer to a false Holy Spirit movement (fire represents the Holy
Spirit) as when the tongues of fire fell on the disciples on the day of
Pentecost.
Acts 23. Indeed, it was in this country that the recent growth of the
neo-Pentecostal movement with its speaking in tongues began!
This is now spreading all over the world in the sight of men and the Roman Church
is fully involved and endorses this!

We will conclude the study of chapter 13 in our next lesson.

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